Wilders wants former Minister Opstelten to be a witness on appeal

For the second time, the appeal begins in the "less Moroccan" case against Geert Wilders. His lawyers will ask the judges to investigate reports that the then Minister of Justice, Ivo Opstelten, had urged the prosecution to prosecute the PVV leader.

This spring, the first appeal is over after a successful court challenge by Wilders' lawyers. The Court of Appeal refused to postpone the trial in order to further investigate the prosecutor's decision not to prosecute Alexander Pechtold, then leader of the D66, for his statements about the Russians.

Attorney Geert-Jan Knoops attends today before the new court to ask again at the steering session to do some research on this. The board also wants to investigate clues showing that Opstelten is personally ingested in the prosecutor's decision to sue Wilders for the "less Moroccan" ruling. Klein from RTL Nieuws. He recently wrote in an article that "according to some sources", Opstelten would have influenced the Attorney General

. If this is confirmed, it could have major consequences on the process. Knoops can use it to ask the court the following year after the summer, if the process begins, to declare the Public Prosecution Service inadmissible.

The problem for Wilders' lawyers is that nothing can be returned on paper. find and that Opstelten has already denied. Attorney Wouter Bos, who has decided to bring Wilders to court, also contradicts the fact that he is under pressure from above.

OM-boss

That is why Knoops wants the former Minister Opstelten and his then-boss of Attorney General Herman Bolhaar, while two senior officials are being questioned as than witnesses. Three days were allocated for the staging session. In January, the Court of Appeal will only announce the decision regarding the claims of Wilders' lawyers.

The court sentenced Wilders in 2016 for insulting and inciting discrimination the statements he made in 2014 on municipal election night.

Wilders asked his supporters if they wanted more or less Moroccans. The public in a Haag café chanted "less, less". Both Wilders and the Crown appealed the court's decision.